CNA 2022-25 vFINAL 09202022 MASTER COPY - Flipbook - Page 20
one-third of the living wage level and must rely on public benefits like Medicaid and Fuel Assistance to get
by. These do not fill the gap between income and expenses, but they help.24
In Yates County, there is a very different story. With the same living wage level as Steuben County, the
average weekly wage of $797,26 one of the lowest in the State,28 puts employees over the official poverty
line (100% FPL), but nowhere close to the living wage. Full-time minimum wage work leaves people with
even fewer resources relative to the cost of living. For example, families with two children and one of the
two parents working at minimum wage earn about 36% of the living wage. Only when two adults with no
children are working full-time at minimum wage do they earn a living wage. (See footnote 27 for some
details on what the living wage is.)
In 2021 and so far in 2022, the U.S. has seen very high rates of inflation, 7% and 8.3% respectively, a 40year high. In New York State in the past year, food has risen in cost by 8.8%, while energy has jumped
29.8%. The average cost of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs is up 13.2%. Dairy is up 7.2%, and produce is up
8.9%.29 Along with this, the cost of employment benefits, often shared between employees and employers,
has increased by 4.1%.30,31 At the same time, wages have increased by 5% (in the year ending March
2022) in response to decreased labor force participation and workforce shortages, and the minimum
wage has gone up. Wage increases have not kept up with inflation, and the buying power of wages has, in
fact, decreased.32 Across the country over the last decade, the amount needed for basic essentials has
increased faster than the Consumer Price Index.33
In Pro Action9s service area, the fundamental economic dynamic that creates the need for an anti-poverty
agency comes through in this data: the cost of living is high relative to local wages -- and to the extremely
low level of income provided by public benefits such as disability, Social Security, and transitional
assistance. Beyond the current high inflation, the long-term drivers in the cost of living are relatively high
costs for housing, child care,34 and transportation in our car-dependent area. According to the Center for
Neighborhood Technology Housing and Transportation Index, in Steuben County, housing and
transportation eat up 63% of the household budget of moderate-income households (defined as up to
80% of Area Median Income), with costs of housing and transportation split evenly. In Yates County,
housing and transportation together take up 60%, with 28% to housing and 32% to transportation.35
28
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/regions/new-york-new-jersey/newsrelease/countyemploymentandwages_newyork.htm
29 Reported in Finger Lakes1 on May 23,2022. https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2022/05/24/inflationminimum-wage-in-new-york-state-amid-inflation/
30 https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
31 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm
32 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm
33
New York State United Way ALICE Report 2020 (using 2018 data), uwnys.org/ALICE or
UnitedforALICE.org
34
New York State United Way ALICE Report 2020 (using 2018 data), uwnys.org/ALICE or
UnitedforALICE.org
35 Center for Neighborhood Technology H&T Index, https://htaindex.cnt.org/map/
Pro Action of Steuben and Yates, Inc. Community Needs Assessment 2022 – 2025
Page 20 of 162
